Overview
- Police guidance circulated this week instructs officers to avoid emotional engagement with protesters and to limit any interaction to a single brief line such as “Please cooperate, we are doing our duty.”
- The advisory warns that visible anger or debate can be edited into viral content and tells personnel not to react to taunts, songs, mock salutes, placards, or phones held close to faces.
- The instructions stress gender‑sensitive handling: officers should avoid physical contact with women, not accept items from them, and, where possible, hand such interactions to women personnel.
- The SOP balances restraint with safety duties by directing officers to assist injured protesters, keep routes clear for ambulances, schoolchildren and the elderly, and help lost children until parents arrive.
- The move, reported across national outlets after widely shared Jantar Mantar videos on Sunday, has been sent to central, district, Railway and Metro units and responds to social‑media scrutiny of crowd control.